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Sunday, May 5, 2013

How to say "How are you" & "I'm fine" in 23 African languaguages

Courtesy calls that you greet someone when you meet them. African hospitality houses saying "How are you" and longer greetings than "Hello". So, let's learn how to say "How are you" and "I am fine" in a few African languages so we can indulge while we are in various countries hehe. Let me show you what I know;-)

Akan: Wo ho te sɛn? Me ho yɛ! If you pay close attention to the translations, you might learn how to say me and you in multiple African languages :-)

Hausa: Sannu? Sannu kade. After loving how D-Flex sang Hausa lines while featuring on K. K. Fosu and Ofori Amponsah songs, I had to learn to this one. From who? I don't remember.

Swahili: Habari yako? Nzuri! You can also respond Sijambo to Hujambo. Or in Kenya, you can say "Sema", which is slang (Sheng).

Zulu (& Siswati): Unjani? Ngiyaphila. Phelele Fakudze taught me this one. I can just hear it ringing in my mind right now.

Yoruba: Bawoni? Mo wapa. Countless Yoruba friends have taught me this because I always seem to forget. Not anymore.

Igbo: Kedu? Odinma. P-Square
never taught me via their music. I never seemed to learn this or remember it until my friend Chioma taught me.

Luganda: Oli otya? Bulungi. Buluuuungi is more like it. I learnt this during my first trip to Kampala. Came in handy while partying in many places hehe.

Kinyarwanda: Amakuru? Nimeza cyane. I learnt this from my Rwandan bestie Matilda and I remember quite clearly, the facial expressions my Stanford friends from Rwanda gave me when I first greeted them as such.

Amharic: Tadias? Selam. Learnt this from some MIT friends who had returned from an AITI trip in Ethiopia. Had many opportunities to use it since as well.

Wolof: Na nga def? Ma nga fi. I learnt this from some Senegalese friends via Google work. It's sad I've still not had the chance to go to Senegal.

Setswana: Dumela/Le kae/Okae? Ke Teng. When I was learning this from my Motswana friend at Stanford, my friend Okai was right there. Isn't that cool? :-).

Fang: We ne voro? Me ne voro. After Leila couldn't tell me, I took to Twitter and Kevin did.

This follows the "Thank You" And "I Love You" posts in this series. Share how to say "these"
in other African languages via the comments. I could have said a few
more in other languages, but we had to stop at 23. I don't need to tell
you why. And if you think it's because Michael Jordan wore the jersey
number 23, you lose your way for the wholewideworld inside. But welcome to the MIghTy African blog anyway. :-)